THE Litten Tree has won a court appeal to stay open until 1am because it has cleaned up its act.

Magistrates gave the green light in spite of public protest and despite the pub's management confession to having made 'mistakes'.

The Mill Street pub - which was linked with a rise in late-night crime by the divisional police commander herself and subsequently had its opening hours cut by the borough council - was given a second chance after a two-day hearing in Macclesfield's county court at Park Green.

Three licensing justices found in favour of the bar after hearing praise from police top brass it had turned itself around.

In passing the verdict, chairman of the bench Ros Kendall said: "Prior to the earlier hearing on March 26, there had been problems in the management of the Litten Tree.

"As a result of meetings with the police, problems were identified and action was taken to resolve those problems."

The verdict came as relief to Michael Ashton, the company's area manager, who has held the venue's entertainment licence since it opened in December 2000.

"I am not saying we were perfect," he told the court. "We weren't perfect. We have made some mistakes."

Barry Khan, who represented the council, said Mr Ashton should have paid close enough attention to the pub to know that problems existed.

"There has been a breach of licensing conditions, which is a criminal offence," said Mr Khan.

Mr Khan raised examples of violence, drunken behaviour, and thefts from the Litten Tree, and said they had been directly linked to the pub through interviews with those involved.

But Mr Ashton said he had not been aware of any of them - because the Litten Tree's incident book had not been filled in correctly by the bar's day-to-day managers, and Mr Ashton had not checked the document.